Shaanxi

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

A province of east-central China crossed by the Wei He. One of the earliest cultural and political centers of China, the province is densely populated and highly industrialized. Xi'an is the capital. Population: 35,300,000.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

proper n. a north-central province of the People's Republic of China, and includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River as well as the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of the province.

Etymologies

From Mandarin 陕西. By regular Hanyu Pinyin rules, if tone marks are not written, both Shaanxi and the neighbouring province of Shanxi, to the east of Shaanxi, should be spelled "Shanxi"; the difference is in tone: Shānxī and Shǎnxī. To make the difference clear without tonal marks, the spelling "Shaanxi" was contrived (following the Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization system developed by Yuen Ren Chao in 1925-1926) for the province of Shǎnxī, while "Shanxi" is used for the province of Shānxī. Shaanxi is the official romanization used on the Chinese Government's official Web portal. This makes "Shaanxi" the only name of Chinese provinces that has not been romanized according to pinyin rules. (Wiktionary)

Examples

The attack took place in Shaanxi province, the Xinhua news agency said.

It is interesting that provinces, such as Shaanxi, are now struggling to claim their Chineseness either by tracing their ancient Chinese tradition, or by emphasizing their multiethnicity, such as Guizhou, as Oakes has noticed. 252 Indeed Yunnan is making a similar claim, by citing its multiethnic culture in its effort to attract more resources internally and internationally.

Tao Ming/Xinhua/Zuma Press Firefighters participated in a fire drill held as a celebration for the 84th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army in northwest China's Shaanxi province Monday.